The GOP: Back in the Money Game

The Republican National Committee under chairman Reince Priebus is once again raising substantial sums, especially from big donors.

By

Kimberley A. Strassel

January 14, 2012

As the GOP presidential field battles over the morality of capitalism, the candidates might be grateful that at least one Republican isn't ashamed to be hauling in the cash. Reince Priebus may not have worked at Bain, but he knows the value of a buck.

One year into his chairmanship of the Republican National Committee, Mr. Priebus will soon be announcing the fruits of his 2011 labors, and the news is that the GOP is (finally) back in the money game. The party may not have a nominee, but what it does have is an organization that looks ever more able to support one.

A source confides that the RNC landed $27 million in the fourth quarter, bringing its year-end fund-raising total to a sizable $87 million. Nearly $12 million was collected in December alone, the largest monthly sum in a non-election year since the early George W. Bush days. This also marks four out of the past five months that the RNC has beat its Democratic counterpart—despite President Obama's formidable fund-raising powers.

These numbers are noteworthy in the absolute; they are striking in the relative. Two years ago, the RNC was the political equivalent of vaudeville, its chairman, Michael Steele, more interested in center stage than the fundamentals of fund raising and organizing. In a year that should have created a tea party-fueled slam dunk, the RNC alienated top donors, frittered away crucial dollars, and spread itself too thin to deliver on prime opportunities.

ENLARGE

Reince Priebus bangs the gavel after being elected Republican National Committee chairman in January 2011.
Reuters

The Republican House victory in 2010 was despite the party, not because of it. And the RNC's lack of money and focus helped lose several crucial Senate seats, the ramifications of which go beyond 2012. Even if Republicans retake the Senate this fall, they will be less able to reverse the Obama agenda than they would have been with a stellar 2010. If the midterms proved anything, it was that no number of Super PACS can replace a well-moneyed, well-organized party machine. And the GOP didn't have one.

Nor was Mr. Priebus viewed as an obvious savior. The former Wisconsin Republican Party chairman was criticized as too young, too untested, too mild-mannered. It took an acrimonious contest and an unprecedented seven ballots for Mr. Priebus to cobble together enough committee-member votes to get the RNC job. He walked into headquarters facing $24 million in debt and was told the group didn't even have enough money to cover the postage for an initial fund-raising effort.

Republicans who know the Wisconsinite say his response was to spend a year sweating the boring stuff. He's cut expenses and staff, getting fund-raising costs below the 50% mark (down from 62%). He's been putting new focus on voter registration and turnout operations. He does TV and speeches, though he picks his spots. Mostly, he's to be found personally coaxing back those crucial, big-dollar donors.

Of all the numbers the RNC is releasing, it is this one that has GOP operatives the happiest. In 2009, Mr. Steele raised $3 million from "major donors" (those giving $15,000 or more). The RNC will be announcing that in 2011 it raised $24 million from this crowd—an all-time record for the party in a non-election year. By the end of 2010, a big midterm election year, the RNC counted 100 donors who had given $15,000 or more. A year later, that number sits at 943.

These figures suggest Republicans are regaining confidence in the RNC, and with that, a new enthusiasm for committing money to beat Mr. Obama. Heads of Super PACs report similar findings. Donors, they say, are less insistent than in 2010 on supporting only purist, tea-party candidates. The past two years have been sobering, and they are increasingly focused on the end prize of the White House and the Senate. They are writing checks, and big ones.

On that point, the conventional wisdom was always that Super PACs had benefited from the RNC's crisis. In truth, the donors who quit giving money to the RNC weren't instead writing checks to Super PACs; they weren't giving money, period. Both the party and outside groups are today registering a wave of dollars, and the Super PACs are only too happy to once again have an RNC able to lead.

The Republicans will need every penny. The president's perch gives him a fund-raising advantage, and the White House is using the "broken" (Mr. Obama's words) campaign-finance system to its full advantage. Kick in several hundred million from the unions, and mix in the Democratic National Committee and the Democrats' own Super PACs, and the left will come into this race plenty flush.

Mr. Priebus's hardest work is still ahead—in matching that Democratic momentum, and in proving he can run a ground game in November. Much, too, is going to depend on whether this Republican primary scrap produces a nominee able to further harness voter energy and money. The nominee will at least have something to work with in the RNC. Considering recent history, that's no small thing.

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.